Navy Seeks Massive UnderSea Tomahawk Power For the Future
Kris Osborn
2d
Kris Osborn
Retiring super-submarines leave a firepower void. The Navy scrambles to equip new Virginia-class boats for future land-attack dominance.
by Kris Osborn, Warrior
A US Navy SSGN Guided Missile Submarine is a massive, lethal warmachine able to stretch nearly two 100–yd football fields and carry as many as 154 Tomahawk missiles. This kind of firepower arms all four of the service’s SSGN boats, undersea war platforms armed with massive firepower to bring land-attack support to any needed military campaign.
However, these boats, and the unprecedented firepower they bring, will be retiring in coming years, a scenario which has inspired the Navy to aggressively scramble for replacement undersea firepower. This replacement is coming in the form of the US Navy’s Block V Virginia-class submarines, attack submarines built with an extra 80-foot section to carry 28 additional Tomahawks per boat, something which brings the total firepower of the submarine up to 40 Tomahawks. The Navy is moving fast to accelerate production and delivery of these boats, yet they will need to “mass” in larger numbers to equal the firepower advantages offered by the SSGNs..
The SSGNs are the USS Ohio, USS Georgia, USS Michigan and USS Florida, heavily armed boats slated to retire from 2026 to 2028. Overall, the US Navy’s Ohio-class submarines have already operated years beyond their intended service life, and the anticipated retirement of four large submarines capable of 154 Tomahawks each retires a massive amount of collective firepower.
Tomahawk Advantage
SSGNs have proven extremely valuable in key military campaigns, such as the attack on Libya in 2011 and the Gulf War; the ability to unleash “mass” precision fires at the beginning of a military campaign has proven decisive and impactful over the years, as Tomahawk weapons are often among the first to strike in a military operation.
https://warriormaven.com/news/sea/navy-seeks-massive-undersea-tomahawk-power-for-the-future
